20050930

you know, when i first saw sam's theme for imbb 19, i thought it said "i can't believe i ate a vegan!" and i thought wow, the food blogging community is giving wholesale endorsement to cannibalism--how totally hardcore!

'course, i was wrong, but that didn't stop me from formulating some recipes. there is still a chance that there will be an imbb: the soylent green edition, so i'll just hold on to those in the meantime.

i started looking for vegan recipes on the web, and came across a lot of negative attitudes by omnivores towards vegan dishes. pretty much the only other food item i'd seen to incur such derision is marmite, and ha, wouldn't you know, marmite is vegan. perfect! i had to make something with marmite. i had to make something with marmite that even carnivores f**k up so i made a gravy. marmite gravy. marmite gravy with roasted garlic mashed potatoes.

i tried it on a carnivore. here's the conversation:

me: eat this.carnivore: (eyeing it suspiciously) why?me: just eat it.carnivore: (tentatively takes a bite, then devours half the plate) hey, this is good. what's in it?me: (eyeing him beadily) you don't want to know.carnivore: (runs from table, gagging)

peel the baked potatoes, add to boiled potatoes in a large bowl. squeeze out garlic cloves from the roasted garlic heads, then mash together with a fork or masher, to desired consistency. add olive oil and vegetable stock and continue to mash, or whip with an electric mixer until fluffy. salt and pepper to taste.

sautée the garlic and onion in olive oil, over medium-low to medium heat, until translucent. incorporate the flour to make a paste or roux. cook over low heat, constantly stirring, until the paste darkens, about 10 minutes. don't let the roux burn. add the marmite to the roux.

slowly add the water or stock to the roux; stir frequently. bring it to a boil and allow to thicken. add the sage, optional mushrooms, balsamic vinegar or wine. if you can find vegan wine, i recommend adding it plus a tablespoonful of the balsamic vinegar for added depth and a slight bit of zing, but balsamic vinegar is fine on its own (experiment freely!). if the gravy is too thin, thicken it with a little cornstarch dissolved in cold water. add more marmite, salt and pepper to taste.

20050928

a few months ago, mcauliflower did a post about a tuna sandwich with garlic whistles, which is another name for garlic scapes (coincidentally, one of pille's first posts was about scapes). i rather liked the idea of tuna and garlic scapes together, but i decided to put a little green 'nanas twist on it.

perversely, fresh tuna is often cheaper here than canned tuna, so i paired my scapes with fresh tuna belly in a sort of tuna tartare. i mixed a rough mince of tuna and garlic scapes with just the lightest binding of japanese mayonnaise, sesame oil, and chili oil, with a wedge of lime to brighten up the flavours. the scapes worked perfectly here, as regular garlic would have overpowered the tuna, and added a nice crunch.

in case you aren't lucky enough to have some tuna belly on hand, you can always use a poke-grade tuna or tuna loin. if you use the heartier cut, you can always turn the leftovers into a nice tuna burger: form the mixture into a tight patty, and grill until both sides are nicely browned, but the center remains pinky rare. serve with more of the japanese mayonnaise mixed with the sesame and chili oils, or a sriracha-style garlic chili sauce.

20050927

20050926

i am going to attempt to give you the recipe for this, but to tell you the truth, i was distracted by someone's repeated attempts at singing "i will always love you" in another, faraway backyard. apparently, not far enough. the muffin recipe itself is based on a jill dupleix recipe, so that's sound--i'm unsure as to how much fruit i added, though, and i completely screwed up the originally intended streusel topping by adding far too much brown sugar, which literally caramelized the macadamias (not a bad thing, really).

i baked these in paper cups which is why they are so tall, but i forgot to grease the cups beforehand, so that's why they are so pale. if you decide to try this, remember to use unwaxed paper cups, or the cups will burn. i could only find 8oz. unwaxed coffee cups, which put it in the jumbo muffin category, but 6oz ones would be preferrable--either way, expect lower yield and longer cooking times.

mango macadamia crunch muffins

for the muffin:75g/3oz melted butter 250g/9oz self-raising flour 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp baking soda pinch of salt 1 tsp ground cardamom 1 tsp vanilla extract 115g/4oz brown sugar (i used asian brown sugar, which is unrefined sugar, unlike american brown sugar, which is usually refined white sugar with molasses added in; use whatever you have available)2 large eggs125ml/4fl oz buttermilk the fruit from two large super-ripe mango(e)s, (carabao or manila if you can find them), or any stone fruit, really--roughly chopped

preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. sift dry ingredients (except sugar) together in a large bowl. add sugar and stir. beat together the eggs, vanilla extract, melted butter and buttermilk in another bowl. make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the egg mixture, stirring through with a fork until it is a lumpy paste. don't overmix. fold in the fruit.

mix the topping ingredients together.

grease the muffin pan or the interior of the paper cups and spoon in the mixture until 3/4ths full. top with a generous dollop of the macadamia sugar mix.

if you are using the paper cups, place them in a shallow baking pan, about ½-1 inch apart (you may need to rotate the pan halfway through baking). bake for 20-25 minutes if in a regular muffin pan, 25-35 for the ones in paper cups, or until the centers cook through. cool on a wire rack.

20050924

i'm bad with memes. it's not that i don't want to participate, it's just that most times i can't. food is important, certainly, but for some reason, i don't really have the same emotional connection to it, or associate it with anything the way others do.

i missed the inaugural lasang pinoy, in which the lovely karen asked to recount a food or food memory from a specific time period. at that time, i was in a catholic boarding school in california, quite far removed from the events unfolding in the philippines, and actually, quite removed from a sizeable filipino population. also, it's probably a good thing i don't remember the food from the cafeteria--a form of self-preservation.

i'm going to miss out on ms. celia's round-up of the second lasang pinoy, involving typhoon food, because frankly, i don't eat before, during, or after typhoons. most typhoons i am either preparing for it, staving off the floods within the house, cleaning up or i'm wishing i took drugs and wondering if it's not too scary outside to risk getting some valium somewhere.

ted tapped me for a cookbook meme, but i think i answered one. i'll have to get back to you on that.

julie so nicely asked me to continue the childhood food memories one, but honestly, this is the one thing i remember from my childhood: my cousin, normal, used to eat bowls of ice laden with sugar. any memory of anything i ate as a child is completely obliterated by this bizarre snack item, and the fact that this is the only thing i remember is probably best left unexamined.

and finally, robyn from the newish, fascinating eating asia blog, tagged me for a new wine meme. it asks me to name the best wine i've encountered in the past 30 days. unfortunately, i haven't encountered any wine (i haven't even walked by one in a shop, or had a bottle on a table) in the last thirty days, not even in the last 60. at some point in my life i somewhat embraced the straight edge philosophy of life, and whilst i don't fully subscribe to it these days, abstaining from alcohol seems to have been one of the things that has remained. i'm in no way saying that appreciating wine is something to be avoided--it just happened that for me, that was just a casualty of being overly fond of the band minor threat. who knew?

anyway, kids, keep meme'ing! i'll be enjoying them from the sidelines.

update: another one bites the dust. on the day i wrote this, reid tagged me for that crazy 23rd post meme, where i was to find my 23rd post, and write out the fifth line from that post. so i looked up my 23rd post, only to find it contained one sentence. ha. i don't even have to try, do i? ;)

20050923

what do you call a bunch of kitkats? a den of kitkats? an exultation of kitkats? a lair? a klatsch? a clutch? a quiver? a congregation? a kitten? anyway, here are various kitkats i've had in recent months.

(above) cappuccino kitkat, from australia. less of a mocha flavour than straight up coffee. nice, not overly sweet. here: "editions" kitkats in mango-passionfruit and seville orange. my mom brought these back from ireland, but they are made in switzerland. above the wafer is a layer of orangey-coloured gunge that tastes remarkably like what it is advertised to taste like. the first one is nice, but they get increasingly less lovely with each successive bar.

an edition kitkat in red berry. the nicest artificial red gunge i've had. tart, and completely not like cough syrup.

two different limited edition orange kitkats: orange and creme, with an orange-flavoured white-chocolate-esque coating, and the halloween one, which just has an orange white chocolate-esque coating over a dark chocolate wafer. the orange and creme is only slightly flavoured, but also slightly addictive. the halloween one has a nice chocolate crunchy bit, but the coating is meh.

an australian caramel chunky kitkat. this is a large bar-sized kitkat oozing with a very, very sweet caramel. much too sweet, but good if someone needs a glucose boost, stat.

still in search of the japanese red bean, green tea, and condensed milk kitkat, the uk lime and yoghurt kitkat, and the canadian banana one.

have you had an unusually flavoured/limited edition candy bar lately?

20050922

over time, he'd survived wars, japanese snipers, had been shot, bludgeoned with a lead pipe, and endured my aunties' constant yammering for 80-some odd years. in the end i'm convinced it was the pork rinds that done him in. g'wan, uncle pedro, with your fine curmudgeonly self. you will be sorely missed.

20050921

it's about time i wind up my manila posts--i've spent more time talking about my trip than i actually spent on the trip itself. so here's one last thing.

it's a typical filipino custom to bring home a small gift (pasalubong) from the homeland, usually a food specialty or small handicraft, or lately, a bootlegged dvd or mp3 cd. however, everyone seems to be on a diet, and the customs officers have been particularly diligent these days. i wanted to bring back something a little practical, and i happen to love perusing the aisles of local drugstores, so this is what i brought back: close-up brand limited edition chocolate and lychee-flavoured toothpastes. i can report that the lychee flavoured one is fabyoolussssss, the chocolate one, not so much.

20050918

i actually had a lovely meal (lamb tikka, gobi aloo) at bollywood bistro, a swankish, newish indian caff in makati. unfortunately, no photos 'cept one of the very nice "mango mafia" dessert: pannacotta with mango, pistachios, and rosewater.

overall food was good--not the best indian i've had, but certainly far from the worst; for some reason it tasted healthier--less oil, and cleaner (probably because it's not that spicy, so the flavours aren't as complex). the decor is tasteful, although a little like a teenage girl's idea of "ethnic", and there's a casual, friendly vibe, efficient service and one of the nicest hosts i've come across anywhere, with indian movies on a flat screen tv and live entertainment at night (geets, gazals & qualies, anyone?).

anyway, i was sort of engrossed in the film playing, which was bombastic (typical), but set mostly in snow (er, atypical). from what i remember it's mainly about an indian guy in the russian army who is fighting in a civil war, and at the same time falling in love with a young russian peasant girl. er, indian country girl. in russia. hip deep in snow. okay, see why i was preoccupied?

20050917

bread talk, a popular bakery from singapore. someone tell me, why is it called bread talk? is there something in the translation i'm missing? anyway, it's less like a bakery than a boutique for bread and other pastries--very white, clean, lots of uplighting and halogen, with quirkily named and funkily shaped pastry and breads showcased on large glass platters. gorgeous, it'tis. sadly, the main bread base is that springy, spongey, tasteless superwhite bread that is popular throughout asia, but luckily most of the items using this particular base also incorporate a redemptive core or topping--beef rendang, chicken curry, chinese ham, a decent custard, blah eh blah eh blahblahblah.

okay, here's the deal. the whole concept of asian idea of western baked goods mixed with actual asian ingenuity makes for cool looking bread and pastries that are hit-and-miss on the taste-o-meter, but combined with the whole boutique concept, the weirdly clinical open kitchen, and the fact that filipinos have a thing about food (j from delicious biting said that, and she's *so* right), means that this place is packed all the time, and oh, here, just look. pretty.

mount fuji swirl: sweet bun filled with whipped cream and a pandan coconut-like jam that is called kaya but i don't really think it is. still, very successful, imo, as the soft, white bread matched the cream and delicate filling well.

nonya chunk: inspired by nonya dumplings, a steamed spicy glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in leaves. the nonya chunk is a pandan-wrapped bun with a spicy meat filling, and topped with a little cheddar cheese. the filling was completely unidentifiable, but spicy with a curry overtone.

grassland: a green tea chiffon cake with cream and sugared red beans layers. hm. pretty but pretty bland, too. disappointed by this. it ain't pretty when the pretty leaves you with no place to go.

nutzi. hey, i didn't name it, they did. i picked this one over the beckham and cheese, and the crouching tiger, hidden bacon. sweet bun with condensed milk, and a creamy peanut filling that really wasn't like peanut butter. really. this reminded me of these pancakes i used to get from hong kong street vendors that were filled with condensed milk and peanut butter. just a fine, fine thing. the pancakes that is. this was good, but fluffy. very nursery-like, and comforting.

the sisig bun. a concession to the filipino public. i'll let you guess from the shape what sisig is made from. this was actually darned tasty.

there's enough substance in this talk that will keep me interested for awhile, but i'm reminded of elvis:

a little less conversation, a little more action pleaseall this aggravation ain't satisfactioning mea little more bite and a little less barka little less fight and a little more sparkclose your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy mesatisfy me baby

20050916

hm. let's see. i'm avoiding wheat, pizza makes me crazy, pasta is out of the question, i'm particularly feeling my lactose intolerance today, and i'm with someone on the atkins diet. where to eat, where to eat? i know! an italian café specializing in sandwiches and pasta! aaaauuuugggggh

we went to cibo, an informal yet highly stylish italian café chain an italian caff that is very, very, very orange or very, very, very lime green depending on which branch you visit. moment of madness, perhaps, maybe just looking for a challenge.

we started with iced tea shakes (just iced tea blended up with some ice, but very refreshing), spiked with a fresh mint syrup. ah.

moved on to the insalata pacifica--mixed greens topped with a generous amount of fresh shaved tender hearts of palm and parmesan cheese, and dressed with the house vinaigrette. is it me, or are most salad dressings in manila really sweet? even the vinaigrette. not sure i cared for the sweetness of the dressing as the hearts of palm were sweet enough, but at least it wasn't doused with the stuff. next time i'll ask for the dressing on the side.

we ordered the three non-carby items: a lemony roasted chicken (pollo arrosto), osso buco with gremolata (braised beef shanks--as joey points out, veal is difficult to find in the philippines--with a pungent garlic lemon parsley sauce), and porchetta, roasted pork marinated in garlic, rosemary, thyme, and sage (pictured above). i had the porchetta, which came with a very mushroomy long-grained rice, a fresh tomato sauce, an herby brown gravy, and a surprisingly good, very tasty fresh apple compote with mustard seeds. not a particularly large meal, as you can see, but it was really a wonderful group of flavours--the melting, sweet, tender, rosemary-infused pork, the earthy shiitake and eryngii mushrooms, the sweet apples lightly tangy with mustard, and the sweet tomatoes. i ate every bit of it. i assume the chicken and beef were equally as successful, as my companions fell silent, refused to let me taste any of it (in all fairness, i hoarded my meal as well), and finished every last morsel.

i have no idea how the pastas, pizzas, or bruschettas are. i'll let you know.

20050915

i went to powerplant mall in rockwell center because i am in love with a bookstore in there, but i don't really know what else is in there except a rock climbing wall in the carpark, a room for drivers to watch dvds whilst waiting for their drivees (such an awesome idea, btw), and um, that's about it. however, i probably spend at least three hours in the bookshop each time i go in, and by the time i'm done, i'm famished.

we went to longrain, which is in the "food court" section of the mall, but since powerplant is a bit more upscale, the idea that this is fast food is not what you'd expect; the restaurants all have their dedicated spaces, but their respective seating spills out onto a common court. the food is mostly asian, and usually a cut above your mickey d's.

longrain doesn't specialize in any one cuisine, but dabbles in various southeast asian regions, including malaysia, indonesia, the philippines, and india. the decor is funky and relaxed, and the menu is just long enough to keep you interested enough to want to try several things, but not long enough to completely perplex you. to tell you the truth, i really like this place, as do several of my female cousins, but i don't think anyone else does. however, i could be wrong, as it has been here for quite awhile now. but then again, it's one of the only restaurants around that hasn't opened up a second branch in the many malls mushrooming throughout manila. hm. whatever. i'll let you know what i ate.

we started the meal with vegetable samosas (pictured at the beginning of the post), a fried vegetable-filled pastry. and it was both heat hot and spicy hot. the fried shell had just a thin layer of crispness, which gave way to a nicely tender pastry, and the garam masala-spiced potatoes, onions and peas packed in a lot of flavour, and weren't mushy or watery. we also ordered a paratha, a grilled flatbread served with a mild curry sauce.

i thought i would have the laksa, a curry-based noodle dish. the idea of yellow egg noodles with coconut milk, prawns, shallots, galangal, lemongrass, sambal belacan and other spices made my mouth water so much and my brain go into overdrive that when the server asked me what wanted, i blurted out "chicken makhani". wtf??? butter chicken?! i guess i short-circuited and ordered the "delhi dinner" on the menu, which consisted of chicken cooked in clarified butter, tomatoes and spices, saffron rice, yellow lentil dhal, cucumber raita and a poppadum. everything was very good--again, nicely cooked, no stinting of spices--but it was no laksa.

luckily (for me anyway), my cousin ordered mee goreng, yellow egg noodles fried with potatoes, tomatoes, tofu, and prawns in a tasty tomatoey garlicky chili sauce. talk about being pounded over the head with flavour, this dish practically leapt into my mouth, it was so good. spicy, but not so much that it overpowered the dish, perfectly al dente noodles, barely cooked through prawns, tomatoes that tasted like tomatoes, not at all oily.

so why don't people like this place? i've only ever ordered indian, indonesian, and malaysian food from here, but from what i've seen of the filipino dishes, i think i could find them lacking. the servers aren't particularly friendly nor helpful, but they are polite, efficient, and the food tends to arrive when it should. i have limited experience with malaysian and indonesian cuisine, but i do like that the kitchen doesn't hold back on spicing dishes, but obviously doesn't rely on salt (or msg, according to the sign), nor have any of the dishes seemed greasy or oily. one cousin had the complaint that perhaps the food had too much flavour and he had a little trouble with so much going on in his meal. huh. well, more for me then.

20050914

there was NO way you could have told me in all the years i've visited manila, that hanging out on the sidewalk right next to makati avenue would be something i would ever do--and maybe even find enjoyable. but funnily, that's where i found myself one night, at max brenner, a "chocolate bar" and café based in israel, with shops in london, australia, israel, singapore, and manila. go figure. the manila shop is nice--creamy walls, dark woods, warm light, high ceilings, with pipes of hot chocolate running the length of the ceiling (wonkish!). the outdoor seating shares space with the next door coffee bean and tea leaf, and sits right on the very busy makati avenue. i doubt i would sit here in the day, but at the end of the evening, it almost seemed like a good idea.

i don't know if it's like this in the other cafés, but all the male servers are bald. is this a requirement, as the slogan is "chocolate from the bald man" (i assume that's max, that is, but you know, in accordance with the theme and all that)? and they wear sweatshirts, which looks hella uncomfortable in manila heat, even at ten in the evening. maybe that's why they were lethargic and unresponsive. it's a good thing we didn't order food (there is a full menu, along with the chocolate stuff), as it took over half an hour to receive our hot chocolate drinks.

i ordered the equador dark chocolate with orchid flowers oil, in a "hug mug", which is meant to be cradled between your hands (it also looks like a bald head). "hot" is a misnomer as it was just lukewarm, but considering the ambient temperature hovering in 'preheat' mode, it wasn't too much of a concern to me. i am the first to tell you i know nothing about chocolate, except the difference between nasty and not. this was not. i don't know if i could actually taste anything special about the orchid oil, except for considering that vanilla comes from orchids, this had some definite vanilla overtones, but nothing particularly flowery.

since this was the only thing i ordered, i wasn't going to blog about it, but i decided to because of one event: as we were sitting there, a group of people walked by, and an elderly gentleman suddenly collapsed. within seconds, the servers had propped him up, fetched him a chair, and called security. our server was, with us, lethargic, but for the concerned group, calm and steady. in a couple of minutes, two security guards secured the area, and within five minutes from that, an ayala center ambulance (okay, less of an ambulance than a jeepney) worked its way through the traffic and whisked the group away. anyway, i just found it very reassuring that should i drop dead in the middle of greenbelt, the ayala corporation is prepared for it.

and, although i'm not a chocoholic, i did buy quite a few of their treats to take home as i am rather partial to the packaging of max brenner products. kawaiiiii!

20050913

for you, o luffers of the pinky meat slab in viscous jelly, real live spamjam café recipes. reproduced without permission from "flavors" magazine, vol.4, no. 41, because i love you like i love my luggage.

first, make the topping: beat the egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, pepper and salt until mixture begins to thicken. add olive oil gradually, drizzles at a time, while stirring to let the mixture emulsify. after all the oil is added in the mixture, fold in vinegar. blend grated cheese and SPAM into the mixture.

1 6-inch length of french breadSPAM, slicedmayonnaise, spiked with mustard and honey to tastelettucecheese slicestomato slices

cut french bread crosswise in half. toast. while tasting bread, fry sPAM on pan or griddle. spread mayonnaise dressing evenly on lower half of french bread. put a bed of lettuce on the bread. arrange SPAM, cheese, and tomato slices on the top. cover with upper half of bread.

SPAM caesar salad

for the croutons:white breadoil (unspecified)minced garlicgrated parmesan cheesesalt and pepper to taste

20050910

manila is home to the only exclusively SPAM restaurant, the SpamJam café. on the menu: SPAM burgers (with specially made round SPAM!), SPAM hotdogs, SPAM corndogs, SPAM spaghetti, SPAM poppers (popcorn SPAM), SPAM nuggets, SPAM baked macaroni, SPAM caesar salad, SPAM and eggs, SPAM melts, and er, curly fries and something called a "cream stick". they also have two SPAM lunch boxes (bento): sweetened SPAM with garlic rice and a fried egg, or breaded SPAM with garlic rice and a fried egg (with a choice of barbecue or sweet and sour sauce). what's *not* on the menu? sodium nitrite, the preservative found in SPAM in a can. the SPAM at SpamJam is made exclusively for the shop, without preservatives, and with a much lower sodium content--this could possibly be the home of the world's healthiest SPAM. eep.

DISCLAIMER: this is a personal journal with no desires to be anything but. it contains my opinion with occasional fact thrown in; recipes have been tested where noted, in an unairconditioned kitchen in the tropics. YMMV. for my sake and yours, consult a professional!